4.32 CHILD SAFE POLICY
POLICY
Beaumaris North Primary School staff and parents consider the safety of students to be
Paramount. The school community supports a child safety policy that minimises the risk to
students by embedding a culture of zero tolerance for child abuse. Child safety encompasses
matters related to:
 Protecting all children from child abuse
 Managing the risk of child abuse
 Providing support to a child at risk of child abuse
 Responding to incidents or allegations of child abuse
PURPOSE
The aim of the policy is to:
 Meet Department of Education & Training accountability requirements and in particular
Ministerial Order 870 (January 7th 2016) from the Education & Training Reform Act 2006.




Ensure BNPS demonstrates its commitment to creating a child safe environment.
Raise awareness within the school community of the importance of child safety.
Empower students who are key stakeholders within our organisation.
Ensure the school develops and publishes a child safe policy that is compliant with the
child safe standards.
 Ensure the school discharges its duty of care towards students.
IMPLEMENTATION
 Beaumaris North Primary School is committed to child safety.
 We want children to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children,
as well as our staff, volunteers and the parent community.
 We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children if applicable, to the cultural
safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to
providing a safe environment for children with a disability.
 We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be
treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.
 We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a
child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.
 Any staff member who believes that a child is at immediate risk of abuse must phone 000.
Beaumaris North Primary School Policy Manual
1
 Our school is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and
removing and reducing these risks.
 Our school has robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and
volunteers.
 Our school is committed to regularly training and educating our staff and volunteers on
child abuse risks.
 We have specific policies, procedures and training in place that support our leadership
team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.
 The school’s Child Safe policy will be publicly available to help raise awareness about the
importance of child safety in our organisation and demonstrate our commitment to
protecting children from abuse.
 The policy will be communicated to the school community via Compass, published on the
school’s website and provided to new families on enrolment.
 New staff will be provided with a copy and briefed on the school’s commitment to child
safety as part of the induction process.
 We will develop strategies to allow families and children have the opportunity to
contribute to the development and review of this policy.
 Where possible we do our best to work with local Aboriginal communities, culturally
and/or linguistically diverse communities and people with a disability.
Our Children
 This policy is intended to empower and protect our children who are vital and active
participants in the school. We involve them when making decisions, especially about
matters that directly affect them. We listen to their views and respect what they have to
say.
 We promote diversity and tolerance, and people from all walks of life and cultural
backgrounds are welcome. In particular we:
 Promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of Aboriginal
children (if applicable).
 Promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of children from
culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds.
 Ensure that children with a disability are safe and can participate equally in all
aspects of school life.
Staff and Volunteers
This policy guides our staff and volunteers on how to behave with the children in our school.
 All of our staff and volunteers must agree to abide by our code of conduct which specifies
the standards of conduct required when working with children.
 All people engaged in child-related work, including volunteers, are required to hold a
Working with Children Check and to provide evidence of this Check to the school office
for entering on our WWCC register.
Beaumaris North Primary School Policy Manual
2
Training and Supervision
 Training and education is important to ensure that everyone in the school understands
that child safety is everyone’s responsibility.
 Our school culture aims for all staff and volunteers (in addition to parents/carers and
children) to feel confident and comfortable in discussing any allegations of child abuse or
child safety concerns. We train our staff and volunteers to identify, assess, and minimise
risks of child abuse and to detect potential signs of child abuse.
 We also support our staff and volunteers through ongoing supervision to develop their
skills to protect children from abuse, to promote the cultural safety of Aboriginal children,
the cultural safety of children from linguistically and/or diverse backgrounds, and the
safety of children with a disability.
 New employees and volunteers will be supervised regularly to ensure they understand
our philosophy and that everyone has a role to play in protecting children from abuse, as
well as checking that their behaviour towards children is safe and appropriate. Any
inappropriate behaviour will be reported through the Principal or Assistant Principal or
directly to the Department of Health and Human Services and Victoria Police, depending
on the severity and urgency of the matter.
Risk Management
 In Victoria, organisations are required to protect children when a risk is identified (see
information about failure to protect above). In addition to general occupational health
and safety risks, we proactively manage risks of abuse to our children.
 We have risk management strategies in place to identify, assess, and take steps to
minimise child abuse risks, which include risks posed by physical environments (for
example, any doors that can lock), and online environments (for example, no staff or
volunteer is to have contact with a child in our school on social media).
Recruitment
 We take all reasonable steps to employ skilled people to work with children. We develop
selection criteria and advertisements which clearly demonstrate our commitment to child
safety and an awareness of our social and legislative responsibilities. Our school
understands that when recruiting staff and volunteers we have ethical as well as
legislative obligations.
 We actively encourage applications from Aboriginal peoples, people from culturally
and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds and people with a disability.
 All people engaged in child-related work, including volunteers, are required to hold a
Working with Children Check and to provide evidence of this Check.
Fair Procedures for Personnel
 Whilst the safety and wellbeing of children is our primary concern, we also are fair and
just to personnel. The decisions we make when recruiting, assessing incidents, and
undertaking disciplinary action will always be thorough, transparent, and based on
evidence.
Beaumaris North Primary School Policy Manual
3
 We record all allegations of abuse and safety concerns using our incident reporting form,
including investigation updates. All records are securely stored.
 If an allegation of abuse or a safety concern is raised, we provide updates to families (as
appropriate) on progress and any actions we take.
Privacy
All personal information considered or recorded will respect the privacy of the individuals
involved, whether they are staff, volunteers, parents or children, unless there is a risk to
someone’s safety. We have safeguards and practices in place to ensure any personal
information is protected. Everyone is entitled to know how this information is recorded, what
will be done with it, and who will have access to it.
Legislative Responsibilities
The school takes its legal responsibilities seriously, including:
Failure to disclose: Reporting child sexual abuse is a community-wide responsibility. All adults
in Victoria who have a reasonable belief that an adult has committed a sexual offence against
a child under 16 have an obligation to report that information to the police.
Failure to protect: People of authority will commit an offence if they know of a substantial
risk of child sexual abuse and have the power or responsibility to reduce or remove the risk,
but negligently fail to do so.
All teachers are mandatory reporters and must comply with their responsibilities. Nonteaching staff have an obligation to report if they form a reasonable belief that a child is at
risk of harm.
BNPS requires ALL staff to undertake the Mandatory Reporting eLearning Module annually.
Allegations, concerns and complaints
BNPS takes all allegations seriously and has practices in place to investigate thoroughly and
quickly. Our staff and volunteers are trained to deal appropriately with allegations.
 We work to ensure all children, families, staff and volunteers know what to do and who
to tell if they observe abuse or are a victim, and if they notice inappropriate behaviour.
 We all have a responsibility to report an allegation of abuse if we have a reasonable belief
that an incident took place.
 If an adult has a reasonable belief that an incident has occurred then they must report the
incident. Factors contributing to reasonable belief may be:
 A child states they or someone they know has been abused (noting that sometimes
the child may in fact be referring to themselves).
 Behaviour consistent with that of an abuse victim is observed.
 Someone else has raised a suspicion of abuse but is unwilling to report it.
 Observing suspicious behaviour.
Beaumaris North Primary School Policy Manual
4
References:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/spag/safety/Pages/childsafestandards.a
spx
www.dhs.vic.gov.au\about-the-department\documents-and-resources\policies,-guidelines-andlegislation\child-safe-standards
The school also has the following policies and documents all of which are designed to create
a safe environment for children:


















Student Engagement & Inclusion
Statement of Commitment
Child Safe Code of Conduct
Anti-Bullying & Harassment
eSmart/Use of ICT guidelines
Mandatory Reporting Policy
Mandatory Reporting Procedures
Recognising signs of Abuse and Neglect
Managing a disclosure of child abuse
Child First Reporting
Visitors to School
Supervision & Duty of Care
Staff Code of Conduct
Staff Induction Booklet
Working with Children Check
Critical Incident Management
Information Privacy
Special Educational Needs
Ratified by School Council April 2017
Next Review Date 2018
Beaumaris North Primary School Policy Manual
5